The man who stabbed a Brooklyn ex-con loan shark who then crashed a car into a heroic 13-year-old girl as she shooed other kids out of the way was acting in self-defense, his lawyer said today.
Kenneth Risher, who was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on murder and weapons charges, was slashed by loan shark Sean Lewis, who was trying to collect $40 from the building super, said lawyer Laurence Rothstein.
During a July 30 confrontation, Lewis ran up to Risher, punched him and cut his right arm before Risher “pulls a knife and swings back,” Rothstein said.
“It was a self defense situation,” he added.
To complicate matters, court documents indicate Lewis died from a severed pulmonary artery, which, according to Rothstein, means Lewis could not have lived long enough to get in his Range rover, drive a block and half, have a collision and then run over Kira Goddard.
“Death would have been immediate,” Rothstein argued. “If what Mr. Risher did was slash the pulmonary artery, the guy would have been dead on the spot.”
The pulmonary artery pumps de-oxygenated blood to the lungs to be enriched.
Risher was ordered held without bail. He is slated to returns to court on Monday.